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Brian Koles

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President, GreenTechBuyer

304 points

Entrepreneur | Sales Professional | Startup Junkie | Workhorse

CEO for Sharkzoo; The first social networking platform for real estate professionals combined with a comprehensive national property listing engine.

Founder of GreenTechBuyer; A web service helping property managers make intelligent green technology purchases ...

Entrepreneur | Sales Professional | Startup Junkie | Workhorse

CEO for Sharkzoo; The first social networking platform for real estate professionals combined with a comprehensive national property listing engine.

Founder of GreenTechBuyer; A web service helping property managers make intelligent green technology purchases.

Sales execution and business development expert specializing in ensuring best practices within high-growth technology sales organizations, particularly for high-growth hosted/cloud/SaaS and green technology companies. Blog: www.TrainMySalesTeam.com.

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Brian Koles answered this question

Sept. 13, 2011

For an organization looking to start a sustainability program, where should they start?

I'll provide some basics, but here are two longer articles on this topic that may be more helpful: http://tech.li/2011/09/top-five-reasons-not-to-hire-a-green-business-consultant/ and http://www.greentechbuyer.org/blog/commercial-energy-efficiency-programs.html
First off, you need two internal champions. One is a top executive committed to devoting resources to sustainability, and the other is an eager do-gooder ... more

Information Technology

Brian Koles and 2 other people answered this question

June 27, 2011

How do you wake up your inside sales team when they seem to be dozing on a friday afternoon?

I agree with Craig that, especially with young teams, Friday afternoon is not the time to rule with an iron first. Back in my day as a Sales Manager with a team of 20 or so 23-28 year old inside sales reps, we had success ... more

Sales Management

Brian Koles and 5 other people answered this question

June 23, 2011

Are sales trainers really great in selling themselves?

If sales trainers are NOT great at selling themselves, then they clearly don't deserve your time and money. However, why you perceive them to be great is more complex, and you need to make sure you're being sold on the right aspects of their training ... more

Sales Management

Brian Koles and 3 other people answered this question at this roundtable

June 21, 2011

Strategies for Getting In: How to Reach That Prospect You MUST Talk To [6/23 @ 1 pm]

Besides LinkedIn, what other social media platforms should salespeople use for prospecting?

What you are going to see in coming years is a big push away from more generalized social networks (i.e. Facebook and LinkedIn), and movement towards more niche platforms for a targeted audience (i.e. Focus.com (duh) for small business and sites like SpiceWorks.com for IT). ... more

Brian Koles and 2 other people answered this question

May 13, 2011

What is a sales enablement manager? Is this becoming a popular position in sales orgs?

The 'Sales Enablement Manager' (or 'Sales Process Expeditor' or 'Sales Collaboration Assistant' or some other vague title along those lines) comes about when management's push for increased sales production is met with the excuse that sales reps are spending too much time processing new orders ... more

Sales Enablement

Sales Management

Charlie Judy selected a best answer for

May 5, 2011

What are you doing to get "Green" at work?

Sustainability and environmental awareness continues to permeate the workplace: many organizations are using it as a means to bolstering connectivity, engagement, and productivity. It has elements of "corporate citizenship," corporate shared-values, and ideology. The younger generations are even starting to expect it.
What have you ... more

Human Resources

Corporate Citizenship

Employee Engagement

Brian Koles and 3 other people answered this question

April 28, 2011

Is it standard practice for sales reps to ask for your contact information at the start of a call?

Gary, couldn't agree more with your sentiment, but the question was relating to an inbound call to a sales department, not an outbound prospecting call. more

Sales Management

Brian Koles asked a question

April 8, 2011

Is exclusively original content a winning Twitter marketing strategy for small business?

Social Meda Marketing Strategies

Twitter Best Practices

Brian Koles and 8 other people answered this question

April 5, 2011

How do you attempt to keep your small business utility bills down?

We all know that saving money on energy bills is as simple as changing employee habits from carelessly leaving on lights, computers, printers etc to thoughtfully powering them down. We also know that changing other's habits is more difficult than changing a printer cartridge!
The solution: ... more

Brian Koles and 17 other people answered this question

March 22, 2011

What are the top 3 skills sales people should develop today to be competitive with the new buying?

Unfortunately, especially in B2B sales, buyers want to talk less because they (think they) are better educated about their options prior to the sales conversation/'pitch' (I know sales geeks don't like this word anymore). This means these three sales skills are now more important than ... more

Kevin Gaither selected a best answer for

March 9, 2011

What are the most deceptive inside sales tactics you've seen used to close business?

It's very easy to lie and deceive over the phone and ive seen some pretty shady stuff go down in the equipment leasing business. What shady tactics have you seen? more

Brian Koles and 12 other people answered this question

Feb. 8, 2011

Green Technology Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for reducing your carbon footprint?

Whether it's a residential or commercial property, the same three principles apply to reducing your carbon footprint: Increase Insulation, Optimize Controls and Cultural Re-enforcement.
1. Insulation: Sealing your building envelope from external weather conditions isn't just about making sure there's (mostly, but increasingly natural fiber ... more

General Management

Information Technology

Carbon Footprint

Brian Koles and 1 other person answered this question

Feb. 8, 2011

What steps can home- and business-owners take to make their buildings more energy-efficient?

Erica, I'm glad you chose to focus on energy efficiency before engaging renewable energy projects. Too many homeowners and businesses get so distracted by shiny solar panels and wind turbines that they neglect to make their building as efficient as possible before pumping in clean ... more

Information Technology

Business Owners

Energy-efficient Buildings

Brian Koles and 6 other people answered this question

Jan. 12, 2011

What are some ways that you prepare before making your calls?

Assuming you know who you are trying to reach, online bios in the 'Management Team' section of the corporate website are a fantastic resource that should never be ignored. It reveals key talking points that will separate you from every other sales call if you ... more

Brian Koles recommends this answer by Daniel Lipson

Dec. 28, 2010

What is the perception of 'Green Technology' within the real estate community?

Brian, If you are constructing a property to occupy yourself for a long period of time (20+ yrs), then from a numbers standpoint you can justify the added cost. It can be noted that 30% of your cost of a building over such a hold ... more

Information Technology

Alternative Energy

Energy Efficiency

Brian Koles and 2 other people answered this question

Dec. 21, 2010

What impact do you think direct dial numbers have on the productivity of Inside Sales teams?

To be clear on what Dan's asking, he's referring to sales reps having a phone number that rings straight to them rather than having to be reached through the company's main number by dialing their extension or tracking them down in the dial-by-name directory.
There ... more

Inside Sales Teams

Brian Koles and 2 other people answered this question

Dec. 15, 2010

How do you handle egotistical prospects?

Tibor's right about using their trait to help you, but I'd do it with a more aggressive focus (ha) on the close.
Ego is about power - purchasing power in this case. Challenge them to show this power with a progression of statements like:
1. "I'm ... more

Brian Koles answered this question

Nov. 16, 2010

What is a good reason for NOT implementing an email marketing campaign?

The only reason I can think of is that you don't have a high quality list of people who have opted in to receive your emails.
If you haven't been actively collecting the email addresses for people that opt into your communications by subscribing to ... more

Email Marketing Campaign

Email Marketing Programs

Email Marketing System

Brian Koles published a brief

Nov. 16, 2010

Why Being Fearless Will Get You Everywhere

Brian Koles and 8 other people answered this question

Oct. 15, 2010

What's the biggest change in sales over the last 10 years?

Miles and Nigel did a great job kicking this off by pointing out that buyers are now hyper-informed and prodded from every angle by automated sales gadgets fighting for snippets of mindshare. Most buyers (especially in the B2B world) simply won't engage an actual breathing ... more

Sales Management

Sales Operations

Brian Koles and 12 other people answered this question

Oct. 13, 2010

Inside Sales Tips: What are the tips for success you would give an individual inside sales rep?

One of the best exercises for new inside sales reps is to create a 'sales persona' before you get on the phone. This is simply an exaggerated version of yourself that showcases your strengths and helps you step out from believing in your weaknesses.
Name ... more

Inside Sales Training

Lead Development

Brian Koles and 8 other people answered this question

Sept. 30, 2010

What questions does one need to have answered before meeting with a VoIP vendor?

As a former sales manager for a leading hosted VoIP provider, I'll stick with hosted and admit bias for it upfront.
If you're shopping for hosted VoIP, here's a top 10 of what to ask:
1. Whose platform are you using?
- You will either get, "our ... more

Information Technology

Telephony Systems

Brian Koles and 5 other people answered this question

Sept. 30, 2010

What have you found the number one benefit of UC to be?

This is almost re-stating the definition of UC, but untethering your workers to do their job wherever they choose is the #1 benefit. Think about it; With a traditional phone system, your people can only communicate from their desk, which is literally tied to a ... more

Information Technology

Unified Communications

Unified Communications Features

Brian Koles and 8 other people answered this question

Sept. 29, 2010

What are some ways to avoid inside sales burnout?

Here's a few that have worked for my teams:
- ENCOURAGE TELEWORKING: It's very hard for sales managers (myself included) to let go of control for fear of losing productivity to unsupervised television watching and laundry folding, but you'll be amazed at how productivity remains the ... more

Inside Sales Management

Inside Sales Reps

Brian Koles and 5 other people answered this question

Sept. 23, 2010

Anatomy of a cold call: What are the first things I should say on a cold call?

All of the above is great, but let me add a few tips that have worked for me over the years.
1. Always introduce yourself and company first, slowly and with confidence. This gives them time to lose the initial instinct to hang up on you ... more

Telemarketing Reps

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